Having worked extensively with various healthcare organisations, Medical Practitioners and Hospitals, we understand that affordable high quality healthcare and timely education and intervention are two critical needs in the Country today. Tobacco happens to be one of the key killing agents which accounts to 5-8 million deaths annually which could be attributed to some form of tobacco usage.
In India, tobacco is used in a wide variety of ways: smoking, chewing, applying, sucking, gargling, etc. Taking the present trends in tobacco consumption in India, an average total loss of around 277.611 billion rupees yearly is estimated, which seems conservative. This amount by far exceeds the government generated revenue from tobacco and reaches almost 1/4th of India's expenditure on health (around $25 billion). This amounts to serious economical losses especially when 75% of its population lives on less than $2 a day (purchasing power parity -ppp) this bears significant importance especially, in a country, where the government expenditure on health constitutes just 18% and the remaining 82% is private expenditure.
Paradoxically, despite this knowledge vast majority of us fall prey to this deadly evil. Today it is estimated that India has more than 250 million tobacco consumers and still continues to be one of the world's largest producer of tobacco.
Avyaya Medicon has partnered with 3 initiatives which aim at:
a. Educating the larger masses of the country on the ill effects of tobacco usage
b. Working closely with policy makers to bring forth long reaching policy changes
1. Tobacco Free Bengaluru (http://www.tobaccofreebangalore.com/)
This is one of the first initiatives bootstrapped by renowned Head - Neck Oncologist Dr. Vishal Rao.
2. KNOT - Karnataka saya NO to Tobacco
This is an initiative which not only aims to educate the rural masses, but also works closely with policy makers to bring forth the necessary policy changes
3. Laryngectomy Club
This is basically cancer patient support group for all patients who have undergone voice box removal.
To know more about what exactly we do with these organisations, please drop a mail to info@avyayamedicon.com